'It's got to be done or we don't survive': plans for oil pipeline across northern Ontario getting 2nd look

The trade war with the U.S. has some Canadian politicians wanting to revisit the idea of a cross-country oil pipeline.

A decade ago, there was a plan to convert the TransCanada natural gas pipeline that crosses northern Ontario to carry crude oil from Alberta instead.

There was strong local opposition, especially in northern cities and towns where the oil pipeline would cross their source of drinking water.

The plan, known as Energy East, was abandoned in 2017. But now some see it as a way to be more economically independent from the United States.

"I think people are getting more comfortable with the fact that it's got to be done, or we don't survive," said Peter Politis, the mayor of Cochrane, one of the many northern communities the pipeline runs through. 

"We can no longer depend on the United States and I don't think we're ever going to be able to depend on the United States again. There's always going to be that hard learned lesson."

Politis was the mayor back in 2013 when TransCanada first proposed moving oil through one of the three pipes buried in the 1950s— which follow Highway 11 through the northeast from Hearst down to North Bay— and has since been re-elected. 

The former provincial Conservative candidate says back then the "wedge issue" was about the possible environmental damage from an oil spill, but feels it's "quite different today."

"I don't know how it doesn't make sense to most people that we need to diversify our economy and we've got to be able to move our natural resources," said Politis. 

"I think the focus is now shifting onto what we can responsibly do, as opposed to lets avoid it altogether because there's a risk that something may happen to the environment."

While there is no official proposal for building an east-west pipeline and the new owners of the natural gas line have expressed no interest, Politis does think it's worth revisiting to preserve the Canadian economy. 

"We have to move as much as we can, as quick as we can, get to those markets as fast as we can and these are already shovel-ready projects. If we get some responsible thinking and tweak them a little bit, they seem to be the ones we're going to be able to get to right away," he said.

The strongest opposition in the northeast to the plan was in North Bay, where like many other cities and towns along the route, the pipeline crosses its source of drinking water.

Chris Mayne, a North Bay city councillor, says while those environmental concerns are "still very valid," he thinks many are seeing how "Canadian energy self-sufficiency does make a lot of sense."

"I think a lot more people would be receptive to it now, who wouldn't have been six or eight years ago," he said. 

"You know, a lot of people are still going to have environmental concerns, it's just how much of a shift has there been in public sentiment for that?"

Mayne thinks the idea of a cross-country pipeline needs "long-term discussion" and not just a knee-jerk reaction to the trade war, but says for him re-routing around drinking water sources like North Bay's Trout Lake would be essential.